{"slug": "search-engine-marketing-in-the-era-of-ai-assisted-search", "title": "Search Engine Marketing in the Era of AI-Assisted Search", "summary": "Google's AI Overviews, launching this week in the U.S., synthesize answers to user queries, potentially reducing click-through rates to news sites and businesses dependent on web search traffic. Geoffrey A. Moore argues the shift will benefit B2B marketers by filtering out low-quality leads while harming B2C marketers by narrowing the top-of-funnel, and will force media to rely on differentiated content and subscriber revenue.", "body_md": "**GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore**\n\nMy social media maven, [Rich Stimbra](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richstimbra/), forwarded me the following as a potential blog topic:\n\nGoogle’s revamped, AI-infused search is making businesses that depend on web search results anxious, and news publishers are already warning it could have “catastrophic” effects on the industry. Why? Google’s newly announced AI Overviews, set to launch this week in the U.S., synthesizes answers to users’ queries, and even though it will probably contain links, information from “know-it-all AI tools” could be thorough enough that users decide not to click through. News sites, whose audiences have already taken a hit from their content being downranked on social media, are bracing for further erosion from Google’s AI update.\n\nGoogle unleashes AI in search, raising hopes for better results and fears about less web traffic\n\nBoy, was he right. AI is bound to be a game-changer for both media and marketers alike, but not necessarily for the worst, provided that both communities up their games appropriately. Here’s what I think we have to prepare for:\n\n**Media —** Yes, you are going to be disinter-media-ted (ouch!). But if your content is sufficiently differentiated, relevant, and impactful, its quality should cause it to rise to the top of the AI’s selection stack. Most of your material may not pass this test, which means you are going to have to acquire and retain your subscribers on your own. The result is almost certainly to be a smaller but more homogenous subscriber base that will be of more value to marketers targeting your core base and considerably less value to the “spray and pray” bunch. That, in turn, means you will likely be able to raise your CPM rates for those leads you do deliver while pivoting your business model to make more of your cash flow from subscribers rather than advertisers.**B2B Marketers —** I expect this to be a boon for you because it should filter out a lot of low-quality leads and pass through higher-quality ones. The larger your ASP (Average Selling Price), the more important it is not to pursue underperforming lead-gen. But historically, lead-gen best practices have been developed by the B2C marketers, which encourages a very wide top-of-funnel in order to get as much market coverage as possible. B2B marketing wants a much more qualified top-of-funnel because the cost and time to qualify make low-quality leads a real burden. The CPM for more qualified leads will legitimately be higher, so the direct cost goes up, but the indirect cost of post-processing should decline more than enough to make up the difference. Additionally, business prospects are more likely to act on value-added responses than raw search results, which is good news, provided your content has sufficient relevance and impact to make the cut.**B2C Marketers —** This is not good news for you. It narrows the top-of-funnel, potentially dramatically, and weeds out marginal leads which you are able to qualify much more cost-effectively than your B2B colleagues. For low-cost items, I expect your digital marketing dollars will shift increasingly to direct-to-consumer venues on popular social media platforms, spending more with influencers and less on raw coverage. For higher-priced ones, I expect a next-gen, AI-enhanced approach to email (text, messaging, etc.) marketing will pay off as well.\n\nThat’s what I think. What do you think?\n\nImage Credit: Pexels\n\n[Sign up here](https://bradenkelley.com/contact-me/newsletter-signup/) to join 17,000+ leaders getting Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to their inbox every week.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/search-engine-marketing-in-the-era-of-ai-assisted-search", "canonical_source": "https://bradenkelley.com/2026/07/ai-assisted-search-marketing/", "published_at": "2026-07-22 12:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-22 12:03:27.228079+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-products", "ai-tools", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Google", "Geoffrey A. Moore", "Rich Stimbra", "AI Overviews"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/search-engine-marketing-in-the-era-of-ai-assisted-search", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/search-engine-marketing-in-the-era-of-ai-assisted-search.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/search-engine-marketing-in-the-era-of-ai-assisted-search.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/search-engine-marketing-in-the-era-of-ai-assisted-search.jsonld"}}